‘Pakistan committed to enter into extended programme with IMF’

ISLAMABAD: Minister for Finance Muhammad Aurangzeb on Wednesday said that Pakistan was committed to enter into a larger and extended programme with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).    

The minister made these remarks while addressing the JP Morgan Seminar on Pakistan’s Economic Policy Outlook in Washington.

Muhammad Aurangzeb said government is focusing on three important reform areas including taxation, energy and privatization.

He highlighted positive economic indicators including strong performance of the agriculture sector, diminishing inflationary pressures, stable exchange rate, declining trade deficit and strong remittances.

Earlier, finance minister Muhammad Aurangzeb said that Pakistan initiated discussions with the IMF over a new multi-billion dollar loan agreement to support its economic reform program.

The South Asian nation is nearing the end of a nine-month, $3 billion loan program with the International Monetary Fund designed to tackle a balance-of-payments crisis which brought it to the brink of default last summer.

With the final $1.1 billion tranche of that deal likely to be approved later this month, Pakistan has begun negotiations for a new multi-year IMF loan program worth “billions” of dollars, Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb said during an interview in Washington.

“The market confidence, the market sentiment is in much, much better shape this fiscal year,” said Aurangzeb, a former banker who took up his post last month.

“It’s really for that purpose that, during the course of this week, we have initiated the discussion with the Fund to get into a larger and an extended program,” he added.